
Set during the days of the Roman Empire. A simple village is raided by Roman troops, and most of the people are whisked off to be slaves or killed. Three women survive and set off to liberate their people. When they arrive at the Roman city, they team up with the local underground to seek vengeance and liberation of the slaves.
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Tag Archives: 1980s
Midnight Killer / Morirai a mezzanotte (1986) Lamberto Bava, Valeria D’Obici, Leonardo Treviglio, Paolo Malco, Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Nicola confronts his beautiful wife about the affair she’s been having. But someone brutally murders her in the shower, right after he leaves the house. Naturally Nicola is made prime suspect. But his colleague, Anna, sees signs that the murder may have been committed by the so-called “Midnight Ripper”. The only problem is that the Midnight Ripper has been dead for several years…
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Black Board / Burakkubôdo (1986) Kaneto Shindô, Terutake Tsuji, Nobuko Otowa, Kazuki Minabuchi, Drama

Takeshi Yasui, a junior high school student is found dead in a river. The police investigate it as a murder related to bullying. The dead boy turns out to have been murdered by two of his schoolmates, who he had been bullying.
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El amor brujo / Love, the Magician (1986) Carlos Saura, Antonio Gades, Cristina Hoyos, Laura del Sol, Music, Drama

In a Gypsy village, the fathers of Candela and José promise their children to each other. Years later, the unfaithful José marries Candela but while defending his lover Lucía in a brawl, he is stabbed to death. Carmelo, who secretly loves Candela since he was a boy, is arrested while helping José and unfairly sent to prison. Four years later he is released and declares his love for Candela. However, the woman is cursed by a bewitched love and every night she goes to the place where José died to dance with his ghost.
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Seishun no mon: Jiritsu hen / Gate of Youth Part 2 (1982) Koreyoshi Kurahara, Kaori Momoi, Kôichi Satô, Kaoru Sugita, Drama

Mid 50s: the trials and tribulations of Shinsuke Ibuki, freshly arrived in Tokyo from Kyushu.
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Carmen (1983) Carlos Saura, Antonio Gades, Laura del Sol, Paco de Lucía, Drama, Music, Romance

A group of flamenco dancers are rehearsing a very spanish version of the Prosper Merimee’s drama. Antonio (the coreographer) falls in love with Carmen (the main dancer). Their story then turns similar to the play.
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Bodas de sangre / Blood Wedding (1981) Carlos Saura, Antonio Gades, Cristina Hoyos, Juan Antonio Jiménez, Mystery, Musical

In a sense, Carlos Saura’s first foray into filming classical dance, Blood Wedding, may be seen, not as a stark departure from the immediacy of his narrative films, but rather, as an oblique return to form towards the social interrogations implicit in his earlier work on the fundamental question of Spanish identity – a particularly timely and relevant re-assessment in the aftermath of a contemporary history marked by institutional repression, creative censorship, and historical revisionism. It is within this framework that the selected adaptation of the seminal “rural trilogy” play by Spanish playwright, Federico García Lorca – a writer who was executed by Falangists in the early days of the Civil War and whose work was generally banned throughout Franco’s regime – seems particularly suited to this post Franco-era cultural introspection in its dark and tragic tale of passion, betrayal, and revenge.
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Camino solitario (1984) Jesús Franco, Antonio Mayans, Lina Romay, Ricardo Palacios, Thriller

Private detective Alfredo Pereira is hired by eccentric couple Raden and Eve to find their missing sister, Adriana. Despite his limitations, Pereira soon finds the woman, but foreplay between characters complicates things.
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Der Himmel über Berlin / Wings of Desire (1987) Wim Wenders, Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Drama, Fantasy, Romance

Visible only to those like them and to human children, Damiel and Cassiel are two angels, who have existed even before humankind. Along with several other angels, they currently wander around West Berlin, generally on their own, observing and preserving life, sometimes trying to provide comfort to the troubled, although those efforts are not always successful. Among those they are currently observing are: the cast and crew of a movie – a detective story set in WWII Nazi Germany – which include a sensitive and perceptive Peter Falk; an elderly man named Homer looking for eternal peace; and the troupe of a financially failing circus, which has closed early for the season because of those financial problems. One day, Damiel tells Cassiel that he wants to become human, to feel not only the sensory aspects of physical beings, but also emotional aspects. He embarks on this thought with the full realization that there is no turning back if he decides to do so. His thoughts are largely …
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Horny Diver: Tight Shellfish (1985)

A ruthless real-estate tycoon sets his sights on a small fishing village, which he believes he can buy cheaply and turn into a profitable tourist destination. Read More »